Refurbishment and Testing Techniques in a Transonic Ludwieg Tunnel

Although cryogenic wind tunnels are typically used in industry for transonic testing, Ludwieg tunnels with high charge tube pressures can also produce unit Reynolds numbers high enough to match inight conditions. A brief timeline of transonic Ludwieg tunnel development is presented that shows how it was nearly selected for full-scale construction to compliment the National Transonic Facility. Having recently been refurbished, an overview of the unique high Reynolds number facility at UT Arlington is presented. Currently, experiments with the facility have been conducted using a combination of porous and solid walls with a half-span NACA 0012 model. Surface ow visualization techniques are discussed for this high Reynolds number, short duration facility. Future development e orts are presented to keep the facility suitable for current transonic testing topics.

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